busy, busy

i know one thing—lacunae accessories make great car knitting.
david and i almost always split the driving on any journey we take. he’s actually a little even-steven about it—he sets the odometer at zero when we start and when the driver has gone just about halfway, he starts looking for a place to pull off and switch.

i usually lobby for the time slot with the most (or the best) daylight hours so i can knit on my “break”, but i still have to drive half the miles. still, on an 8-hour trip, there’s a lot of time to knit. hats and mitts are perfect for this; socks, too, but hats and mitts fly off the needles in the car.

i ended up with three finished hats and six completed mitts (there are two that don’t match each other, though) from my long weekend efforts. and several false starts on socks.

the bunny socks are still on the needles, but i just had to try that stitch pattern in the zen yarn garden red cashmere sock yarn, too. once i got the idea in my head that it would be perfect, i couldn’t shake it, so late last night i cast on and knit one repeat.

i already know—i’m going to love, love, love these socks (i love the other ones too, but i think this marriage is just a little better). they’ll be my poppy socks. i even bought a necklace over the weekend that will look just right with them (oh yeah, i forgot to take a picture of that).

so now, i either will have two pair of the same sock in very different colorways, or i’ll use the bunny yarn with a different stitch pattern (i just know it’s right for something out there). i haven’t decided yet, so i’m not ripping anything til i know.

meanwhile, at anne marie’s request, i’m giving the lacunae pattern one more life to live as a sock. for the first attempt i used the wrong yarn (it was a struggle to work the stitch patten), so i set that aside and started another pair in STR lightweight, colorway muddy bottom breakdown.

the rounder, more solid composition of this yarn is working a treat in these socks—it’s much easier to grab hold of with the needle to execute the twists that occur on two of the pattern rows. plus, we love the color. this will be a cozy, snug sock—just the kind i like.

it’s gotten cold here again and i’m reminded that i’m low on heavy socks. i broke out a new pair to wear on our trip that i knit quite a while back (i think that’s may 2007 on the calendar there . . .)

it felt great to ahve a brand new pair of toasty-warm socks knit from handspun yarn. even though they don’t last as long and they don’t fit into any shoes i own, i still like to have one or two pair for very cold days to wear with my felted clogs. so i’m putting that on my to-do list for after the holidays. i have some nice alpaca handspun that will be perfect.

now that it’s after december 1, i really need to get going on david’s christmas sweater. especially because this year the “plain” sweater he was babbling on about actually has quite a bit of detailed finishing work.

ok, so here’s where we are with the design: early last week david shows up the dinner table laden with multiple sheets printed out from the j. crew website. my inner knitter immediately starts chastising my inner newlywed to please stop telling david he can have whatever he wants.

anyway, he starts showing me photos he’s printed out of exactly the thing he wants me to knit—you can see it here. now, even david knows that modeling a sweater on a woven garment could present certain design problems, so he graciously located a knit piece with similar styling (or rather, styling that he likes similarly well), and if that sweater could have an additional set of pockets such as can be seen here, that would be “brilliant” (my husband, the architect). this is why i usually try to surprise him, instead of asking . . .

as you can see the first example is more or less a rendition of the old woolrich field jackets. and i do like it very much. plus, it’s perfect for david—he sure does love him some pockets. the collar stand and cuffed shirtsleeves might not translate very well in a knit, but i think we can come up with something that will work (oy, but all those pocket flaps!). i’m actually pretty smitten with the military mockneck wool cardigan (ok, and yeah, that might have something to do with what’s inside of it there).

now that i have a good idea of what’s wanted i feel pretty organized about how to proceed. i’ve gt a stockpile of smaller knits done, and i need to catch up by writing the patterns for those. but knitting-wise, i can spend time on the sweater and some socks and my lace stole, and that’s a good workload for the next few weeks.

last night i wound up all the robusta yarn for the sweater

(this is a good picture of the colorway for once . . . it won’t always photograph this well).
tonight i’ll do a few swatches, though i’m pretty certain i’m going to go with this tweedy stitch pattern i swatched in a different yarn a couple weeks ago.

it has just enough texture to keep things interesting but moving along quickly. david already approved it, too. it looks good in that DK yarn, but i know it will be different in the bulky yarn. just it case it turns out that it’s way too big, i have another one in mind.

i’m planning to knit this thing in pieces because just thinking about doing a bulky sweater in the round makes my arms tired. and then there is all that shaping—that will benefit from the structure that seams provide.

i’m excited. i love knitting sweaters and this one should be mostly fun. remind me of that when i’m about to slit my throat on december 23rd . . .